This professor bragged she can’t be fired for bad-mouthing Barbara Bush. She might be right.

Democracy Dies in Darkness Sections Home Subscribe Try 1 month for $1 Username Sign In Account Profile Newsletters & Alerts Gift Subscriptions Contact Us Help Desk Subscribe Account Profile Newsletters & Alerts Gift Subscriptions Contact Us Help Desk Accessibility for screenreader Grade Point by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Susan Svrluga by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Susan Svrluga Email the author April 20 at 9:30 PM Email the author Can a professor with tenure be fired? That’s the question being debated after a professor enraged thousands of people with social media comments written hours after the death of Barbara Bush, wife of former president George H.W. Bush and mother of former president George W. Bush. Randa Jarrar, a professor at California State University at Fresno (Fresno State), took to Twitter this week to attack the former first lady’s legacy and call her names — and the professor seemed to taunt her critics, telling them to take their complaints straight to the university president. Many did, furious about such Jarrar comments as “I’m happy the witch is dead.” On social media, in opinion pieces and with direct appeals, people called on the public university’s leaders to fire Jarrar. Those demands sparked a debate over free speech and academic freedom, and whether there are lines that even tenured professors cannot cross. “I will never be fired,” Jarrar wrote on Twitter. But experts on tenure said the protections it provides are not unlimited. “It’s a common misconception that academic freedom is absolute,” said Gregory Scholtz, director of the… [Read full story]